The Labor enquirer., 1887-01-08
circumstances Which Pre-.
ceded and Surrounded
ii in Paris.
A Masterly Exposition Of the
Evils of Society and =
Their Remedy.
The Brutality Of the Ruling Class
Which is the Same Every. y
where and To-Day.
PRINCE KRAPorKINE.

| PRINCE KRAPoTKINE.
On the eighteenth of March, 1871, the
people of Paris rose against q power gem
erally detested and mistrusted, and pro-
claimed the city of Paris independent
free, and belonging to itself.
This overturning of the central power
took place without the ordinary get up
Eof Revolution. Upon that day not q
gun was fred. no streams of blood were
poured forth behind the barricades.
The government vanished before the
people armed and down upon the street
the troops evacuated the town; the off,
cials fastened. to be off for Versailles
carrying with them all that they could
carry. The government evaporated like
pool of putrid water at the breath Of
the springtide wind, and on the nine.
teenth, Paris, having scarcely shed a
drop of her children's blood. found her
self free from the stain which was in
fecting the mighty city.
Nevertheless the Revolution which
had just been wrought opened new era
in the series of Revolutions by which
the people are marching from slavervto
liberty. Under the name Of the Com.
mune of Paris was born a new idea, des-
tined to become the departure point of
the Revolutions of the future.
As is always the case with great ideas.
it was not the product of the cbncep-
tIons of philosopher, of an individual |;
it was born in the collective spirit, it
went out from the heart of an entire
people; but it was vague at first, and
many of the very men who put it into
realization and who gave their lives for
it, did not imagine its end such as we
conceive it to-day. They did not re alize
the Revolution which they we're inau-
gurating, the fertility of the new princi-
pie that they were trying to put into ex-
ecution. 1t was only from the day of it's
practical application that men COM
menced to catch glimpse of its future
reach; it was only in the putting
in practice s.of the thought which
has been ever since at work, that
this new principle became more and
more defined, outlined itself and stood
forth to view in all its clearness. all its
beauty, its justice, and the Importance
of its results.
From the time that Socialism had
taken new scarf in the course of the
five or six years which preceded the
Commune, one question above all others
occupied the attention of those who are
working out the coming Social Revolu.
tion. 1t was the question of ascertain.
Ing what would be the mode of political
grouping of societies most propitious for
that great economic Revolution which
the actual development of industry i'm
poses upon our generation, which must
be the abolition of individual property,
and the putting in common of all the
capital accumulated by the preceding
generations.
The international workmen's associa-
ton gave the reply. The grouping, it
said, cannot be confined to any one sim
gle nation; it must extend itself beyond
all artificial frontiers. And soon that
grand idea penetrated the hearts of the
people. took possession of their minds.
Pursued pitilessly since then by all the
reactionaries leagued together, it vet
lives, and the moment the obstacles
placed in the way of its development
shall be DESTROYED by the voice of the
people in insurrection it will spring up
again stronger than ever.
But what should be the integral parts
of that vast association had yet to be as
certained.
Thereupon two great currents of ideas
found themselves face to face in answer
this question: the Peoples State on the
one hauKon the other. Anarchy. =
According to the German Socialist the
state ought to take possession of all the
accumulated wealth and give it to the
" orkingmen's associations, to organize
production and exchange, to watch over
the life, and over the workings Of 30
cietv. ,s
To which the greater part of the So
cialists of the Latin race, strong in their
experience, replied that such state,
even admitting that it could by some
imposslbllty exist, would be the worst
of tyrannies, and they are opposed to
this ideal, copied from the past, new
ideal-au-archy-that is to say the COM
plete abolition of states, and the organi-
NATION of producers and consumers
either simply or bv the free federation
of Me peoples forces. IN
ItNwas soon admitted. even by some
''stateists," those who we're less imbrued
with governmental preiudices. that I'M
questianably Anarchy represents an or.
ganizatson \far superior to the Peoples
State; "but, said they, "the Anarchist
ideal is 80 far distant that We cannot oc-
cupy ourselves with it ior the moment.
On the other hand the Anarchist theory
lacked a formula at once concrete and
simple. to show precisely its point Of
departure, to give body to its concep